They Play This Prank
With Girls As Well As Boys, And I Believe It A Miserable Life They Endure,
Because
I have known several of them run away, at that time, to avoid it.
Now, the Savages say, if it
Was not for this, they could never keep
their Youth in Subjection, besides that it hardens them ever after
to the Fatigues of War, Hunting, and all manner of Hardship,
which their way of living exposes them to. Besides, they add,
that it carries off those infirm weak Bodies, that would have been only
a Burden and Disgrace to their Nation, and saves the Victuals and Cloathing
for better People, that would have been expended on such useless Creatures.
These Savages are described in their proper Colours, but by a very few;
for those that generally write Histories of this new World,
are such as Interest, Preferment, and Merchandize, drew thither,
and know no more of that People than I do of the Laplanders,
which is only by Hear-say. And if we will make just Remarks,
how near such Relations generally approach Truth and Nicety,
we shall find very few of them worthy of Entertainment; and as for
the other part of the Volume, it is generally stufft with Invectives
against the Government they lived under, on which Stage is commonly acted
greater Barbarities, in Murdering worthy Mens Reputations,
than all the Savages in the new World are capable of equalizing,
or so much as imitating.
And since I hinted at a Regulation of the Savages, and to propose a way
to convert them to Christianity, I will first particularize
the several Nations of Indians that are our Neighbours,
and then proceed to what I promis'd.
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